What
is our identity as Americans? Upon reflection, it seems to me that
the answer depends on what period of history we are considering.
Ours is an experimental society with a fluid sense of what it means
to be an American. So the answer to the question of our national
identity may be found variously in many places and times. Not just
one but several different identities have existed in America going
back to colonial times.

The
following offers a selection of types:

(a)
The Pilgrims and Puritans:

The
Pilgrims who landed on Plymouth rock in 1620 were religious Separatists
escaping the Church of England. They wanted to remain Englishmen
but practice their religion freely. The “Mayflower Compact” asserted
their claim to self-government in a new land.

Ten
years later, an even larger group of dissenting Protestants, whom
we call “Puritans”,
settled in Massachusetts. Like the Separatists, they believed that
the Church of England had been corrupted. They wanted
to purify the Church. In John Winthrop’s mind, America was a place
where a “city of God” might be established. Armed with a charter
from the king of England, this group of 500 persons set sail from England
in March 1630. The aim was to establish “a government of Christ in
exile”.

Common
to both communities was the idea of a corrupt church in England.
The dissenting groups that settled in the New World saw themselves
as being
morally
superior because they overcame worldly influences and lived according
to
a strict moral code. They thus set themselves up as a positive example
in opposition to the established church of England.

(b)
American revolutionaries:

The
American revolution was an anti-colonial insurrection against the
government of Great Britain. Armed hostilities began in April 1775
when the British commander sent 700 troops to Concord to destroy
stockpiles of fire arms which the colonialists had assembled. They
were beaten back by a hastily assembled group of farmers and “minutemen”.
Soon the British government was at war with all its colonies along
the eastern seaboard. The colonial armies, led by General George
Washington, won a military victory over the British after a six-year
conflict which ended with Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown
in October 1781.

This
successful revolution has been interpreted in the light of certain
political ideals. The Continental Congress
produced a written document which disclosed
the purpose of the rebellion. The “Declaration of Independence”,
signed on July 4, 1776, was sent to the British monarch. Besides containing
a list of grievances, this document stated unequivocally that the colonialists
meant to establish a government independent of Great Britain. The document
famously declared that “all men were created equal”, each having “a
right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, and that “to
secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed.”

After
the war against England was won, there was a six-year interlude in
which the now independent
states of North America were associated under
the “Articles
of Confederation”. Then, in the spring of 1787, representatives
of the state governments assembled in Philadelphia to draft the constitution
for a new federal government. It was an authorization to form a democratic
government: a democratic government with specifically defined powers
which
was organized in three branches, each exerting a check upon the power
of the others.

A
democratic society thus took shape through the deliberations of scholarly
persons intent on searching history for the best models of government.
For the next half century, Americans were aware of participating in
a
political experiment. They lived in a democracy - a government of,
by, and for the
people rather than a government of hereditary monarchs. Self-governing
and
free, they exemplified the “democratic man”.

This
new identity spilled over into the culture. Noah Webster compiled
an “American
dictionary” and wrote extensively on the literature and language
of the American people. Ralph Waldo Emerson composed an oration on “the
American Scholar” which envisioned that an new American culture
would emerge that was superior to the old European culture. Walt
Whitman’s “Democratic
Vistas” predicted that Americans would create new and superior
types of poetry, literature, sculpture, and architecture. American
chauvinists
were trumpeting the virtues of democracy in every area of life.

This
model of American identity, like the Puritan, was formed in opposition
to what existed in European. We Americans were not like
the Europeans.
Unlike them, we lived in a society where people were freed from
the shackles of
autocratic tradition. We lived in the vanguard of historical progress.
Our forward-looking system of government would allow us to excel
in all areas.

(c)
The western frontiersman:

The
English immigrants to North America settled first along the Atlantic
coast. General Braddock’s expedition against a French fort
near Pittsburgh drew attention to the wooded interior. By the time
of the American Revolution, Daniel Boone was leading migrations into
the Kentucky territory. This encroachment upon Indian lands caused
friction with the natives. Bears and other wild animals were a constant
danger. The white pioneers were a hardy lot who had to fight hostile
Indians and provide for themselves in the wilderness. In the process,
they caught the imagination of people on the eastern seaboard who
were settled into comfortable lives.

Europeans
were enchanted with the people who inhabited the North American wilderness.
Rousseau
imagined that the American Indians were “noble
savages” who led uncorrupted lives. Benjamin Franklin, the philosopher-diplomat
from America, was lionized in pre-revolutionary France. So, in the early
years of the United States, the pioneers who pushed westward acquired a
mystique of bravery and adventure. Popular novels and plays featured their
exploits.
Politicians such as Davy Crockett, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln
conveyed the image of the rough-and-ready westerner who rose from a humble
birth to
acquire power and fame. Popular literature fed this image. Davy Crockett’s
popularity soared after a play was written about him.

In
a second phase, the western hero explored territories west of the
Mississippi river. Like
Daniel Boone, resourceful guides such as Kit Carson and Jim
Bridger shepherded white settlers through the mountains and deserts of
the western
frontier. The Sioux annihilation of General George Custer and his cavalry
troops highlighted the danger.

Again,
the cult of western personality advanced through publicity. Jesse
Fremont, wife of the leader of
an early expedition to California, promoted
Kit Carson in her writings. After shooting buffalo to provide meat
for railroad crews, “Buffalo Bill” Cody became an entertainment
entrepreneur. His “Wild West Shows” thrilled audiences
on the American east coast and in Europe. Annie Oakley was a female
sharp
shooter in that show.
An eastern dentist turned novelist, Zane Grey, wrote novels set in
the west that were picked up by Hollywood film studios.

And
so, the adventurous pioneer of the western frontier provided another
model of American identity. This type of person exhibited a courageous
and restless spirit associated with our national progress. In contrast,
the settled
people living in the east led comparatively tame lives. Politically,
this played out as a struggle between eastern plutocrats and small-scale
farmers
or miners in the west. Americans liked to believe that their nation
embraced a “pioneer spirit”. With westward expansion came
the rugged cowboy or wheat farmer personifying our national strength.
Again, this model of
personality was positioned in contrast to a less attractive alternative.
Western virility was set against the effete east.

(d)
The Southern romantic:

American
intellectuals were on the muscle in the early days of the Republic,
declaring their cultural independence from Europe. In the South,
however, this independence took a different direction. A southern
literary movement developed in the late 1830s, called Young America,
which used literature to promote nationalism. Sir Walter Scott, the
romantic poet, was one of its inspirations.

Scott’s
poetry was focused on the border region between England and Scotland,
two nations
that had fought bitterly in the 18th century. Scott
believed that, as the English people represented a fusion between Anglo-Saxons
and Normans, so in a similar way a new British people would result from
the fusion of English and Scottish people. Scott’s border romances
concerned the cultural roots of this people. His type of literature
was about creating
a new national identity.

The “Young
Americans” applied this
scheme to American politics. One of its leading members was William Gilmore
Simms of Charleston, South
Carolina. Unlike Sir Walter Scott, whose works promoted unity between
Scotland and England, Simms envisioned a growing political and cultural
rift between
the southern and northern parts of the United States. He believed that,
after ethnic and cultural integration had made them strong enough to
exist on their
own, these distinctly different peoples should each have their own nation.
Simms argued that, as the American colonies had rightly declared their
independence of Great Britain in 1776, so the southern states ought some
day to become
independent of the United States, now dominated by the north.

In
historical romances such as Ivanhoe, Scott had painted a picture
of medieval
England focused on its valor. The idea of chivalry, which combined
good manners
with deference to women, had infused Europe’s medieval culture.
Sims applied this scheme to the culture of the American south. In that
vein, southern
gentlemen showed exaggerated courtesy to women and readily fought duels.
Ideals taken from Scott’s poetry instilled a sense of cultural
superiority among southerners with respect to the North. It gave southern
culture an
element of bravado that led to secession and war.

A
northern writer, Mark Twain, later accused Sir Walter Scott of influencing
the southern
character to such an extent that his writings were “in
great measure responsible for the (Civil) war.” Brought up on
medieval romances, southern gentry believed that their superior courage,
gallantry,
and fighting spirit would be enough to defeat the north. It was a naive
fantasy, bringing a stiff price.

(e)
The Civil War soldier:

Decades
of political wrangling between the slave and free states and Abraham
Lincoln’s election to the U.S. Presidency in 1860 brought the
withdrawal of six southern states from the Union. When Confederate
forces fired on Fort Sumpter in the Charleston harbor, President
Lincoln called upon the northern states to furnish troops to quell
the rebellion. Over a four-year period, the northern and southern
armies fought battles over a broad territory concentrated in the
southeastern states. By the end of the war in April 1865, hundreds
of thousands of soldiers were dead, the South was devastated, and
a searing memory was left in the minds of Americans.

An
event so traumatic could not help but leave its mark upon our national
identity. The
Civil War became a defining moment in our national history.
Persons living in the North could take pride in the military victory which
the Union forces had achieved. They could revere the leadership of President
Lincoln, who was assassinated less than a week after the war’s end.
An accomplished writer, Lincoln became a martyr to two causes, preservation
of the union and abolition of slavery. Veterans of the “Grand Army
of the Republic” could march to honor the magnificent cause of their
youth.

Residents
of the southern states were left with mixed memories. The war had
left many people wounded or dead. Whole cities were left in ruins.
The survivors
had to deal with the legacy of an unsuccessful rebellion against the
U.S.
government fought to uphold slavery. On the positive side, the Confederate
soldiers had fought bravely against a materially superior force. Through
able leadership, tenacity and courage, the southern soldiers had kept
the Union army at bay for much of the war. In Robert E. Lee, they
had a hero
who combined personal gallantry with tactical genius. More than Grant,
he looked the part of a great military leader.

The
identity left from this war was therefore regionally defined. The
South was the more
deeply affected. Southerners clung to the memory of
that war
to maintain their regional identity. Economically poor, they took pride
in their culture. After the bitter days of Reconstruction, they developed
a
racially segregated society that lasted for almost a century. Southern
charm combined with political unity and skill brought a disproportionate
influence
in the U.S. Congress. Until the Civil Rights movement brought disrepute
to their type of society, one often heard the boast that “the South
will rise again".

(f)
Midwestern immigrants ca. 1900:

Think
of the people who inhabit Garrison Keillor’s mythical community
of “Lake Wobegon”. They are small-town people of north
European stock immersed in an agricultural society. Keillor casts
them as Scandinavian Lutherans and German Catholics, but the Swedes,
Irish, Finns, and other immigrant groups were also well represented.
In 1900, almost half the population in the upper Midwest - Wisconsin,
Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, and the Dakotas - was foreign-born.
These people came to America to escape social limitations and take
advantage of cheap, plentiful land. They lived and worked on family
farms averaging around 150 acres.

Each
ethnic community aspired to maintain its culture. A survey of U.S.
publications taken in 1892
identified 727 German-language and 112-Scandinavian-language
newspapers, plus a smaller number in the Spanish and French languages.
Church-based companies such as Augsburg Fortress published books
in languages other than
English. There were institutions of higher learning such as Illinois’ Augustana
College and St. Olaf College in Minnesota that catered to the sons and
daughters of immigrants, religiously based fraternal orders such as the
Knights of
Columbus (Roman Catholic) and Sons of Knute Lodge (Lutheran), and ethnically-based
savings and insurance associations. The Missouri Synod Lutheran church
had parochial schools whose classes were taught in German. In small villages,
the church was the center of social as well as spiritual life.

Among
German immigrants, there was a socialist tradition manifesting itself
in coops, populist parties, and agitation to help farmers and laboring
classes. The beer-drinking Germans were opposed to the Temperance movement.
This ethnic
community tended to be culturally on the muscle, hearkening back to a
glorious
Germanic tradition in music, literature, and the arts. The situation
abruptly changed during World War I when German-Americans were harassed.
Irish-Americans
went through a period of cultural boastfulness in the early 20th century,
citing the splendid example of Irish poets, novelists, and dramatists.
Scandinavian-Americans took pride in their novelists, architects, poets,
and sculptors.

After
immigration from northern Europe peaked in the 1890s, the ethnic
communities of the upper Midwest were threatened by assimilation
into
the mainstream
American culture. Previously in favor of unrestricted immigration,
these communities switched to a position of wanting to limit the
number of
immigrants allowed into the United States. That attitude carried over
into isolationist
policies during both world wars. However, the greater threat to these
communities came from falling grain prices after World War I, growth
of the automobile
industry and increased mechanization on the farm, and, culturally,
from the assimilating influence of motion pictures, radio and television.
A faint
echo of the earlier culture remains in Garrison Keillor’s fictional
tales of Lake Wobegon, the Coen brothers’ film “Fargo”,
Ole & Lena jokes, and quirky phrases or modes of behavior thought
to be associated with residents of Minnesota and neighboring states.

(g)
The inventor/industrialist:

After
the Civil War, the northern states experienced rapid industrial growth,
spurred by new technologies and processes of production. The innovative
captains of industry behind the great corporations of that age are
yet another model of American identity. Some such as John D. Rockefeller
and William K. Vanderbilt became wealthy through financial acumen.
Others parlayed knowledge of a technology to multi-millionaire status.

Andrew
Carnegie was a Scottish immigrant born into poverty who worked for
others until he had enough money to start his own company. Carnegie
built
factories and organized steel production in more efficient ways. Then,
in
1901, he sold his company to become the nation’s foremost philanthropist
and philosopher of wealth.

Another
type of industrialist was someone such as Thomas Edison or Henry
Ford who had invented the technology underlying
his business. This person
typically had limited education but was able to master a body of scientific
knowledge and creatively tinker with gadgets. Applying himself to projects
of personal interest, he organized a business and eventually became rich.

Thomas
Edison went to work as a newsboy on a railroad at
the age of 12. Three years later, he became a telegraph operator.
His work
in
that capacity gave him time to experiment on improvements in telegraphy.
He received his first patent for an electrical vote recorder. Later,
Edison built a research laboratory that produced inventions including
the electric
light bulb, the phonograph, motion-picture projector, and telephone
receiver. He created a system to generate electric power in large
cities such as
New York.

While
Henry Ford was chief engineer at the Detroit Edison Company, Edison
encouraged him to continue working on his prototype
of an automobile,
the Ford “quadricycle”. This was the first of many Ford
products. In 1903 Henry Ford demonstrated his automobile by racing
on a frozen lake.
He raised capital from Detroit investors to start a manufacturing
company. Ford’s superior product and mass-production techniques
brought huge profits. As more units were produced, Ford was able
to improve
product quality
and lower the price while paying his workers a wage above the prevailing
rate.

Ford
surrounded himself with mechanically gifted persons including his
long-time assistant, Charles Sorensen. Another Ford employee,
William S. Knudsen, went
to General Motors where he became head of the Chevrolet division
and later president of the company. A Danish immigrant, Knudsen
resigned his position
at General Motors to supervise U.S. war production during World
War II.
Another technically gifted person was the famed aviator, Charles
A.
Lindbergh. Best
known for his pioneering solo flight across the Atlantic ocean
in 1927, Lindbergh consulted with producers of military aircraft
in
the early
1940s and, after
the war, with Pan-American Airlines.

With
respect to personal identity, this type of individual was distinguished
by creative talent, either
as an inventor of new
products or a business
manager. Carnegie’s “gospel of wealth” has inspired
persons wanting to become rich. Edison’s fruitful career
set an example for others seeking fortune and fame through invention.
Ford put Americans on wheels.
These great inventors and industrialists exemplified the progress
that could be made in a free society with a capitalist economy.
They improved American
life in material ways, providing new gadgets and conveniences while
turning the masses into consumers of such products.

(h)
The labor-union
member:

The
labor movement originated in Great Britain in reaction to horrendous
working conditions in the factories. Industrial workers in America
also organized to bargain collectively with their employer. During
the 19th century, the main issue was work time. Trade unionists struggled
to win the 10-hour day and, after the Civil War, the 8-hour day.
A general strike called in North America for that purpose on May
1, 1886, succeeded in establishing the 8-hour day for tens of thousands
of workers. This was the first “May Day”. It became an
international labor holiday.

In
the 20th century, the American labor movement was embodied mainly
in the American Federation of Labor
(AFL), which was an association of skilled craftsmen,
and, starting in the 1930s, in the Congress of Industrial Organizations
(CIO), a union group that organized all workers regardless of occupation.
The two
organizations merged in 1956. Generally unions belonging to these organizations
were limited to particular industries such as those that produced steel,
built automobiles, or served food in restaurants. Their purpose was to
negotiate contracts with employers on advantageous terms to the members.
When employers
did not agree, they might collectively withhold their labor during strikes.

The
culture of the labor movement is built on the idea of worker solidarity,
both internally and externally with other unions. There is an “us
versus them” mentality with respect to management. The labor movement
is continually trying to organize businesses whose employees are not
represented by a union.
Union members usually belong to a “local”, which is identified
by a number and the name of the national (or international) labor organization.

Each
local elects its own officers and holds periodic meetings, usually
once a month. Union members often wear satin jackets to these meetings
on which
the identifying emblems of their local are embroidered. During strikes,
they congregate at the gates or doors of their place of employment
carrying picket
signs to announce the strike and perhaps identify grievances.

Union
members are typically better paid than workers who are not organized.
Their superior economic reward depends on the union’s success
at the bargaining table. Some of the principal bargaining issues
include the wage
rate, health-insurance coverage, paid vacation and holiday time,
and other benefits. Lately, union membership has increased among
government
employers
relative to those in private industry whose ranks are threatened
by technological innovation and outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries.
Unions tend to be
politically active, usually associating with the Democratic Party.

While
the percentage of union members in the U.S. economy has been
shrinking in recent years, such membership remains an important
type of identity
for many Americans. Union members tend to be militant yet realistic
in their
aspirations. The labor movement has a proud history that would
include, besides May Day, pitched battles with employers in western
mining
camps and in the
steel mills of Pennsylvania, “sit-down strikes” at automobile
plants in the 1930s, and other colorful events.

(i)
The Organization
Man (or
Woman):

“The
Organization Man” is the title of a best-selling book by William
H. Whyte that was published in 1956. It described the attitudes and
practices of upper- and middle-management people in American corporations
at that time. Conformity to corporate norms was a prime characteristic.
Rugged individualism and thrift, once virtues of the business class,
had become obstacles to promotion by then.

Management
people learned to think like their colleagues in the firm. They carried
briefcases
and dressed in gray-flannel suits. Willingness to work
fifty or sixty hours a week and then do work-related entertainment or reading
without feeling aggrieved was a sign of the personal loyalty that businesses
liked to see in their management employees. The goal of such a person was
not to be brilliant or even make contributions to the business but simply
fit in. The organization man was a “normal” type of person.
He readily agreed to whatever his superiors in the firm required of him.

This
type of personality suited the conditions of lifelong employment that
once characterized corporate America. Such a person was the antithesis
of the rebellious union member. He was a college graduate who did what
it took
to climb the corporate ladder to a higher position. Today, however, the
unspoken contract of lifelong employment in exchange for personal loyalty
has been
broken. One would be a fool to give one’s heart and soul to a firm
that thinks little of dumping trusted employees to cut costs.

In
the fast-changing environment of Silicon Valley, the ideal employee
may now
be a nerd dressed in jeans who knows how to write software; or,
on Wall
Street, the savvy investment manager with a knack for getting in and
out of markets at the right time. Specialized skill is prized for its
economic
utility. The individual is back so long as he can perform. Yet the
organization man and, increasingly, the organization woman remains
a fixture in the
corporate world. Education remains as important as ever. Appropriate
dress is important.
High corporate or professional achievers often “do lunch”.

The
new breed of manager may carry Blackberries, attend rock concerts,
and sympathize with the downtrodden, but his attitudes are kept within
a certain
range. High-level managers would never, for instance, be outspoken
white racists. (Among other things, such talk might open up their
firms to
discrimination lawsuits.) They would never express unbridled admiration
for the socialist
order. They do, however, tastefully exhibit their wealth and position.
They are well-rounded in today’s terms.

(j)
The
entertainer
and his
fans:

The
development of the motion-picture and music-recording industries
in the 20th century created a large audience for the works of famous
performers. Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin were celebrities of
the silent screen. When sound was added to motion pictures, Hollywood
featured stars such as Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland,
and Marilyn Monroe. Some film performers had fan clubs whose members
closely followed the star’s personal life.

The
music-recording industry has produced a series of idols. Audiences
became acquainted
with a performer’s music by listening to the radio. When
an unusually popular singer gave live performances, it could lead a public
spectacle in which a mob of screaming fans showed up to cheer. In the 1940s,
Frank Sinatra was a musical sensation who appealed to “Bobbysoxer” women.
Hank Williams attracted a following on the Country Western music circuit.
Another southern singer, Elvis Presley, later known as “the king
of rock ‘n roll”, achieved notoriety as a white singer who
sang “black
music” and swiveled his hips provocatively on stage. An iconic superstar,
he met an early death.

Hank
Williams died before the age of 30. Over 20,000 persons mourned his
death at a public ceremony held in Montgomery, Alabama,
in the winter of
1953. Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, and Bing Crosby were “crooners” with
a smooth style. The big bands appealed to audiences in the 1930s. Each
type of music had its own following, often generationally defined. Personal
identity
is found in the types of individuals responding to the various kinds
of music.

Music
appreciation defines a certain lifestyle. This is a kind of contemporary
American identity that is more passive than some others but can also
be emotionally satisfying. The performer of music, on the other hand,
often
follows the
hard-living model established by famed writers and artists of past
eras.
Premature death from drugs or alcohol, or from the intensity of the
creative process, adds to his aura of fame.

Another
type of entertainer is the professional athlete. Here, again, the
different sports -
baseball, football, basketball, golf, boxing,
hockey,
stock-car racing, etc. - have their own types of heroes and their
own fans. Some sports are classier than others. Baseball attracts
a more
cerebral
type of fan than, say, stock-car racing. Pro wrestling is in a class
by itself
in terms of low-brow taste. But a champion is a champion; the winners
in any sport are idolized by certain groups of people who regard
them as attractive
models of identity.

The
sports teams cultivate a sense of fan identity. Residents of New
York City are expected to root for the Yankees or
Mets even if
the
team players
were recruited from other places. Fans of the Green Bay Packers
are “cheeseheads” because
the state of Wisconsin specializes in cheese production. Rabid
Packer fans will sometimes wear cut-outs of sliced cheese on their
heads.
Those who support
the Minnesota Vikings may paint their faces purple (the color of
the team jerseys) or wear horned caps like Viking warriors a millennium
ago.

The
culture of professional sports serves to balance life in a heavily
corporatized society. It’s OK to act crazy while
rooting for the “home team” -
a good release for people who must otherwise be careful to avoid
giving offense in their humor. Cashing in on the identity that a
professional sports team
gives to an urban community, the team owners have been known to
demand that area taxpayers chip in to build new stadiums for their
teams. If Minneapolis
did not have its own professional-sports team, Hubert Humphrey
once said, that city would become like a “cold Omaha”:
it would be without personality from a Big League point of view.

(k)
The
Civil
Rights
activist:

The
racially segregated society that was established in southern states
following the U.S. Civil War came under attack in the 1950s following
a U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of school integration. The
federal government forced schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, to integrate.
Black students enrolled at previously all-white colleges. The Rev.
Martin Luther King organized a boycott of the public bus service
in Montgomery, Alabama, after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing
to remain in a section reserved for blacks at the back of a bus.
An initiative to integrate Woolworth lunch counters in Greensboro,
North Carolina, spread throughout the south.

With
President Kennedy’s
assassination and Lyndon Johnson’s elevation
to the Presidency came new legislation to protect the rights of black Americans.
Later regulations laid the foundation for affirmative action. Fair housing
laws were enacted to end race-based housing restrictions. By such laws
and regulations, U.S. society became firmly committed to racial
integration.
There was also an effort to end race prejudice. Both government and business
organizations, supported by religious clerics, took strong stands against
white supremacy. Law-enforcement agencies monitored the activities of organizations
such as the Ku Klux Klan. White racists became social pariahs.

The
critical work to end racial segregation in the south was done in
the 1950s
and 1960s. Fifty years later, African Americans take pride in
the courageous struggles of black people at that time. Many whites
are also
proud of having
supported the struggle. However, their motivation for supporting the
Civil Rights movement differs from that of blacks.

For
black people, it was a matter of fighting for equal rights, which
would mainly
benefit themselves. It was a matter, more broadly, of promoting
social progress. As when Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in
Egypt, so the
Civil Rights movement would redeem black Americans. For young white
people, the motivation was, in their eyes at least, more idealistic.
These often
privileged whites were helping a group of innocent people oppressed
by white hillbillies or bigots in the South. The white supporters
of the
Civil
Rights
movement were, in contrast, themselves broadminded and educated persons.

Many
white people supported the Civil Right movement as an extension of
their religious commitment. There was strong Jewish representation
among
this group,
not only because of moral teachings in Jewish religious texts but
also
because Jews had likewise been victims of discrimination in a WASP-dominated
society.
Christianity was on both sides of the fence. While most Ku Klux Klan
members were Christians supporting the racial status quo, northern
church members
were moving in the direction of tolerance. They were rejecting, for
instance, the narrow-minded rules prohibiting association between
Catholics and
Protestants that were part of small-town life in favor of a more
ecumenical approach.

From
a vantage point many years later, the Civil Rights activist is the
proud veteran of a political and social movement
that gained
a
great
victory like
those war heroes who once fought in the American revolution or
in the U.S. Civil War. In the aftermath of that victory, many whites
who feel
estranged
from U.S. society identify personally with the struggle of black
Americans. They see themselves as having suffered in a similar
way.
Their model
of personal identity is based on social and political alienation.
Conservatives would
call it the politics of victimhood. The idea of racial oppression
is an
archetype supporting the genre.

(l)
The
educated
proletarian:

When
someone graduates from college, he or she acquires an identity associated
with that institution. The identity becomes the more attractive the
more difficult it was to be admitted to the particular college. Then,
too, graduation indicates that the person’s grades were adequate.
In other words, the four years spent as a student in good standing
in a reputable college buys a certain image of who the graduate is. “He’s
a Harvard man” means something. He’s at least above average.

The
other side of the coin is that the college graduate is assumed
to be on the fast track to a promising career. Reputedly, a college
education is
required for the mental skills needed to handle complex functions successfully
in a job. That qualification helps land an interview for such positions.
Some graduates make the right connection to a career and fulfill the promise
of college. Others do not. Considering college enrollment is increasing
while
the number of well-paying jobs declines, an increasing portion of college
graduates will fail to make the promised connection. As a college education
ceases to be the attribute of a social elite and approaches universality,
it cannot claim to matching graduates with the “better jobs”.
Its significance lies mainly in its absence.

There
is a group of Americans whose identities were shaped by education
but who failed to connect with
suitable careers. These persons may have
spent
some of their best years in school. They were thought to be “above
average” by virtue of having earned an academic degree. Some of
them graduated only to find jobs as dishwashers, taxicab drivers, or
persons
on the fringes of the arts scene. I would characterize them as a kind
of proletariat.

So
we are talking about a new type of American. These educated proletarians
would not have much property unless they inherited it. Some continue
to live with their parents; their period of childhood seems prolonged.
But
they do
have aspirations. Unable to distinguish themselves in a career, they
seek personal satisfaction in unusual lifestyle choices, cultivating
an interest
in music or the arts, involvement in political causes, or specialized
interests of various kinds. They may participate in computer discussion
groups. They
may immerse themselves in pop culture. They are not unintelligent,
though
a bit disconnected from society. Their education has dropped them in
a wasteland of powerlessness and neglect where they are free to do
as they
please.

One
of the few persons able to make a living by following his creative
bliss, humorist Garrison Keillor notes that “in spring,
a person’s thoughts
naturally turn toward what you would rather be doing than earning
a living, and in America this usually means Being an Artist ...
One
reason the economy
is so sour is that nobody wants to tote barges or lift bales, they
want to be edgy and multilayered and express their anguish in some
colorful and inexplicable
way ... People who have a Higher Calling may feel justified in slacking
off on the Lower Calling even though it is the one that pays the
light bill.”

The
educated proletarian stands in contrast with persons who are fulfilling
their career expectations and with the
owners or managers
of small
businesses whose lives are centered on making money. That type
of person offends
him because he considers himself above money-grubbing. College
students were
taught to be concerned about social policy, philosophy, literature,
history, or science. But where can they exploit those fruits of
literacy? No longer
so much in a paying job. Through volunteer activities and unusual
hobbies or pursuits they hold on to tokens of nobility that distinguish
themselves
from the crowd.

And
so on the fringes of government, education, journalism, criminal
justice, or the arts, we find educated men and
women in unremarkable
careers offering
their time and expertise. We find volunteers in political campaigns.
We find artists and musicians cultivating their yet undiscovered
talents. These are
activists in the environmental and animal-rights movements, transit
or energy experts, and members of civic advisory groups. They
are members of block
clubs or neighborhood groups who assist elected officials in
making community
decisions. They are persons who do religious or charitable work.
They may
write thoughtful letters to the editor or publish articles and
books.

The
unpaid policy wonks of nearly every stripe come from this group.
They do not see themselves as proletarians but as society’s
prospective leaders, ever hopeful, just a break or two away from
recognition. Most times,
it never comes.